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Radiophrenia Redux: Double Goocher Shop and Alexis Weaver (Audio)

Apr 19, 2021
Produced by Radiophrenia.

This monthly program features highlights and commissions from Glasgow art radio station Radiophrenia. Presented in today's episode are Radio Carrion by Double Goocher Shop (AKA Renato Grieco & MP Hopkins) and Mineral Disobedience by Alexis Weaver.

About Radio Carrion: The early 1940’s. Several unconnected people from various locations disappear. They somehow became stuck in a radio field. Since then, the inhabitants of this interference space have had to readjust their social behaviours, re-evaluate their ethics, find a way to live despite disembodiment. Cultural practices have mutated within the magnetic field, including those of burial and remembrance for the dead. During short wave radio explorations, Double Goocher Shop unintentionally captured EVP interactions with these inhabitants. The stereophonic artefact produced by the duo for Radiophrenia explores an anthropological hoax via the metaphysical features of spherics, veering voltages, static electromagnetism, and ghost voice hunting. How to bury a body without a body?

Radio Carrion is a co-commission between Radiophrenia and Kunstradio Radiokunst for Ö1, Austria. Produced with the support of Creative Scotland.

Mineral Disobedience is an experimental soundscape inspired by an unofficial war waged in Sydney, Australia. Known for its natural beauty, the Emerald city is experiencing a period of rampant development; mirroring the wider world. Industry leaders must increasingly engage with environmental concerns raised by the public, as has been demonstrated by the ongoing climate change protests. For the latter group, this is a deeply personal issue which must affect the way we all interact with nature forever; for the former, it seems climate collapse is an administrative nuisance rather than impending reality. I use this context as a starting point to explore how Human, Machine and Animal might interact if the machines and tools we use in our taming of Nature were given anthropomorphic voices. Field recordings of construction sites and the natural world intersect as the machinery rattles to life. How would the diggers, jackhammers, trucks, the frames of the skyscrapers themselves, interact with their surroundings if liberated from their day jobs? The minerals from the ground, re-moulded into the building blocks of humankind, would surely have some things to say.

Presented on an annual basis, Radiophrenia is a temporary art radio station – a two-week exploration into current trends in sound and transmission arts. Broadcasting live from Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, the station promoted radio as an art form, encouraging challenging and radical new approaches to the medium. Each year, the broadcast schedule includes a series of newly commissioned radio works, live shows, pre-recorded features and 12 Live-to-Air performances. The majority of the program is made up from selections submitted to an international open call for sound art and radio works. Radiophrenia is managed by Mark Vernon and Barry Burns and is funded through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Funding with additional support from CCA Glasgow.